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Gangland figure Tony Mokbel will not spend any more time in jail for a major drug trafficking conviction after having his sentence slashed on appeal.
Mokbel was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2012 with a non-parole period of 22 years after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate in three separate criminal cases.
Tony Mokbel has walked free from court on Thursday after a resentencing of a drug conviction.Credit: Joe Armao
Of the 30-year-sentence, 20 years related to one case. On Thursday, that sentence was wound back to 13 years, seven months and 15 days, which the court heard was “time already served” before his appeal was lodged.
“He is taken to have served that entire sentence,” Justice Stephen McLeish said.
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On October 3, Court of Appeal Justices Stephen McLeish, Maree Kennedy and Stephen Kaye unanimously tossed out one (Quills) of his three major drug convictions, ordered a retrial on a second (Orbital), and upheld a third (Magnum).
Mokbel’s barrister, Julie Condon, KC, had argued the prosecution case against her client was corrupted by Nicola Gobbo, who was working as a double agent for police while also representing Mokbel before his sentencing.
He was not made aware Gobbo was a supergrass before entering his 2012 guilty plea.
Prosecutors are yet to decide if they will pursue a fresh trial for Orbital, but legal sources said it was unlikely.
The Magnum conviction, which still stands, related to the trafficking of a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine via a large-scale criminal enterprise that Mokbel directed while he was overseas, and involved thousands of hours of police phone intercepts.
During the handing down of its judgment, the Court of Appeal found Gobbo’s involvement had corrupted one of the cases against Mokbel, known as Operation Quills, to a degree that his conviction should be quashed, but found that didn’t automatically extend to the other prosecutions – known as Magnum and Orbital.
The Quills case had alleged Mokbel was part of the large-scale preparation and pressing of ecstasy pills from powder on two pill presses at a Coburg factory, and later a third pill press in a Craigieburn garage that made more than 30 kilograms of MDMA.
The Orbital case – which Mokbel was ordered to face a retrial on – alleges the now 60-year-old commissioned the importation of MDMA powder into Australia in 2005 by placing an order with undercover police for 100 kilograms at a cost of $1.2 million.
In the judgment, the judges said the joint efforts of Gobbo and police to secure critical evidence from a person for whom she was acting, involved a fundamental debasement of her professional obligations.
This, they found, infected the whole Quills prosecution, such that it would have been a profound affront to the administration of justice if it had proceeded to trial.
At sentencing, Mokbel was handed a joint sentence for all three cases after, on April 18, 2011, pleading guilty.
Tony Mokbel and his partner (centre) arrive at the Court of Appeal on Thursday.Credit: Joe Armao
On Thursday, Condon said her client had spent 5005 days in pre-sentence detention from the time of his arrest in Athens on June 5, 2007, until his release on bail in April.
This time was an appropriate sentence, she said.
All up, Condon said Mokbel had been in prison for 19 years, including on matters he was earlier acquitted of in 2023.
“A 14-year head sentence is sufficient,” Condon said.
Mokbel sat alone in the body of the court wearing glasses and a suit. Family and his girlfriend sat in the public gallery.
Condon put five matters to the court in mitigation for her client. These included the assault he sustained in custody in February 2019, the impact of the pandemic on his incarceration, his congenital heart condition and “impeccable” compliance with bail conditions since April.
Mokbel, she said, would also fall to be sentenced as a first-time drug offender due to earlier charges falling away.
The court heard the Magnum case occurred between June 2006 and May 2007, before his arrest in Athens.
“That’s the extent of the activity the court is being called upon to resentence on,” Condon said.
Crown prosecutor David Glynn, SC, argued a longer sentence was appropriate with the impact of Quills and Orbital on the Magnum sentence not to be overstated.
The courts will also be asked to approve a costs certificate for the case, allowing Mokbel to be reimbursed for his relevant legal costs.
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